“It’s like Christmas” at Mountain Town Brewing Co.

Kim Kowalski, head brewer at Mountain Town Brewing Co., was like a kid on Christmas morning Wednesday afternoon in the back of the brewery located at 614 W. Pickard St. in Mt. Pleasant.

Amidst the smell of hops, with music blasting, Kowalski and fellow brewers Jeff Eddington and Rob Murphy armed themselves with crowbars and tore apart large wooden crates filled with the new brewing tanks for the brewery’s new larger capacity brewing system for the Taproom’s experimental beers.

“We’ve been waiting for this for months,” said Kowalski. “It’s like Christmas popping open these crates.”

Currently, the brewery has the capacity to brew 10 gallons at a time of each variety of beer, and Kowalski says “10 gallons is not enough.”

Kowalski is excited at the idea of being able to meet the demands of Mountain Town’s fan base. When a new beer is announced on tap, Kowalski said “people see it on Facebook and get to the brewery, and it’s gone already.”

“This is going to be so fun,” Kowalski said. He plans on being able to experiment on a much larger level. With 300 types of beers brewed by Mountain Town, “people always want something different,” he said.

Kowalski uses a lot of local ingredients in his beer brewing, from dandelions to maple syrup to various ingredients he “finds out in the woods” such as spruce needles. The new brewing system will be in place “just in time for spring,” he said.

While crates were being pried open to begin setting up the new brewing system, Kirk Kowalski, Rob Murphy and intern Emily Gilmet from Central Michigan University worked on brewing a double batch of Trainwreck, an amber ale described as “an American ale brewed with maple syrup and honey to give it a full body and smooth sweetness.”

The brewers were starting on round 2 of the double batch, cleaning and sanitizing the brewing system while pallets piled high with cans of Trainwreck sat stacked off to the side.

The aluminum cans are a new feature, designed to be able to be sold at places where glass bottles are prohibited, such as beaches, golf courses and sports complexes.

During the interview, Kowalski said there was 500 cases left of the Trainwreck cans, with enough current stock to pack another 1,200 cases. By the end of the interview, the brewery had unloaded the last 500 cases to another buyer.

With the new market for cans, “it’s selling quickly,” said Kowalski.

As the last of the brewing tanks were unpacked and wheeled into place in their new home in the back of the brewery, the brewers gathered around admiring the shiny steel tanks and new gear.

“I wouldn’t mind having one of these in my house,” said Kowalski.

Once electricians and plumbers come in to get everything in the new system hooked up, it might seem like Christmas not just for the brewers, but for local lovers of craft beer as well.